IDNO

P.88558.PAT

Description

Older Inuit man preparing to land a skin kayak in a bay, with a second kayak on rocks in the foreground. The kayaks are constructed of sealskin stretched over wooden struts, with re-enforcing wood around cockpit. The deck is fitted with a number of lines, which normally serve to hold the hunting gear, and the paddle is double bladed. Two sealskin floats are in the water in the background, and the hills of the opposite shore are in the distance. (See Notes field for further description of kayak.)

Place

N America; Arctic; Canada; Nunavut; Baffin Island; Clyde River (Kanngiqtugaapik); Clyde Post [North West Territories]

Cultural Affliation

Baffinland Inuit

Named Person

Photographer

?Ritchie, Montague H.W.

Collector / Expedition

Paterson, Thomas Thomson [from James Wordie’s Expedition to Melville Bay and North-East Baffin Land, 1934]

Date

?23 - 31 August 1934

Collection Name

Paterson Collection

Source

Paterson, Erik T.

Format

Album Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Bibliographical Reference: Percy Cox; C. T. Dalgety; H. R. Mill ‘An Expedition to Melville Bay and North-East Baffin Land: Discussion’ in The Geographical Journal Vol. 86, No. 4 (Oct., 1935), pp. 313-316. [JD 20/10/2006].

Photographer: Note in above article, page 313, accredits all photographs to M.H.W. Ritchie unless otherwise stated. However, as the majority of the prints in A.149.PAT are copy prints and appear to show Clyde Post over the seasons, it is possible that the images are from another expedition and compiled by Paterson into this album on Clyde Post. Two possible expeditions are Thomas Paterson’s expedition to Pelly Bay in 1947, or the Arctic Institute of North America’s Baffin Island Expedition 1950 led by Patrick Baird (See The Baffin Island Expedition, 1950, by P. D. Baird, in The Geographical Journal (Sept 1952, Vol. 24, No 1) pp. 47-59. Available on www.jstor.org) [JD 15/11/2006]

Bibliographical Reference: Boas, Franz, 1901. ‘The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay’ in Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History ; v. 15, article 1. Pages 9 - 18 refers to the construction of kayaks of Cumberland Sound, including the following text:
A kayak “has a flat bottom, the framework of which consists
of one central strip of wood and two curved lateral strips. ... They are held together by a considerable number of ribs, to which these strips are sewed with sinew and thong. ... This framework is covered with seal skins that are drawn tightly over it. The skins are held taut by means of thongs, which are firmly sewed on. ... The deck is fitted with a number of lines, which serve to hold the hunting gear. ...
The paddle of the kayak above described is 305 cm long; the handle part is 74 cm long, square in the middle, and round at the outer ends, where it is held by the hand. The blades are rounded and narrow, about 6 cm wide and 3 cm thick, with bone tips 5 cm long mortised on to the shaft. The handle is separated from the blades by a ring with a notch in the middle, around which a narrow strip of fur is fastened”. [JD 24/11/2006]

P.88490.PAT to P.88574.PAT were found in the album now numbered A.149.PAT.

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 15/11/2006]